Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-02-23
A POISONED VALENTINE.
The Deadly Present Sent to a Jersey
City Belle Last Monday.
From the Ne,o York Star.

From the NetO York Star.
Miss Nellie Willis is well-known
young lady, who moves III good society
IN jersey City. She lives with her mother,
who Is idow, at 1873 Fourth street.
For several weeks she has been annoyed
by receiving anonymous letters, SOME of
which were obscene, while others con-
tanned passionate words OF love. No at
tention was paid to the letters, and
most of them were destroyed
soon after they We're received.
When at last the letters became abusive
they were turned over to the post office
authorities, who were asked to try and
discover who the writer was, so that the
annoyance could be stopped. Efforts
were made to find the writer, but without
success. sometimes the mlssives would
be mailed in Jersey City, and at other
times In Brooklyn and again in New
York and Garden City.
Neither Miss Willistnor any of the
| members of her family could i'm agine
who these letters were coming from, or
for what purpose they were written.
Miss Nellie is about 10 years of age, has
very pretty figure aud Is quite hand
some. She has two sisters, one of whom
is married to Mr.. Alexander Connors,
who is in the feed business at Thirty
fourth street and Tenth avenue, New
YORK, and another one is married to Mr..
L. Cox, Wall street broker. Her brother
Is an engraver and does business on
Maiden lane.
The letters suddenly stopped coming to
the house, and for a week not a note of
any kind was received, and Miss Willis
began to think that the annoyance had
stopped.
On Monday morning the postman de.
livered at the house a good-sized box ad-
dressed to Miss Willis. AS it was St.
Valentines day it was supposed by Mrs.
Wills that the package contained val
entlne from one of her daughters many
admirers. AS Miss Nellie was out when
the package was received, 1t was left in
the parlor until she returned. When
Miss Willis opened the package that
evening she found pretty box made OF
lacquered wood, and on opening it saw
that 1t was filled with delicious looking
figs.
She took one of the figs from the box
and was about to eat it, when her atten-
ton was called to green spot on the
side. Upon a closer examination she
found that the tig had been slit with
knife, and on breaking it open, the inside
was found to be sprinKled with green
powder. The rest Of the figs were exam
med, and every one had been treated in
the same way. The box was taken to a
chemist, who told Miss Willis that she
had had a narrow escape from being
poisoned, as each fig contained big dose
OF Paris green.
The discovery was so startling that
the young lady was taken i'll and has
been suffering from nervous prostration.
The box ana figs were turned over to the
police, who are making every effort to
md the scoundrel who mailed the
package. The postmark was that of one
of the stations in New York. When Mrs.
Willis was spoken to about the matter
she said:
81 cannot imagine who sent Nellie the
box or for what purpose it was sent.
Some one must have a spite against her.
She narrowly escaped being poisoned"
Miss Willis met with romantic adven-
ture shortly before Christmas. At party
one night she met a young Spaniard
named 81. Cisco. He called on her several
times, when he asked her to marry him
She refused bis offer, and her mother for
babe him to come to the house. When he
found out that he could not call on her he
would watch wherever she went and
annoy her with his attentions on the
street. He finally threatened to kill Miss
Willis, and she had him arrested. When
brought up before the police justice he
said that he was student at the Troy
Institute, and that he did not intend to
harm Miss Willis. He was discharged,
and since that time nothing has been
heard of him.